Iowa girls still missing four months later

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Tuesday marks four months since two Evansdale, Iowa cousins went missing.

"We just keep praying and hoping that today is the end of our nightmare," said Heather Collins, whose daughter Elizabeth, 9, went missing along with her cousin, Lyric Cook, 11.

Collins and family friend, Sarah Steabell, walked with a purpose Tuesday morning, hanging up flyers at businesses all over downtown Davenport.

"While we always do a vigil on the 13th, this month, we thought we'd do something different and spread Iowa-wide,” said Sarah Steabell, from Evansdale. “We have people going to Omaha, Mason City, Dubuque."

Elizabeth and Lyric were last seen on a sunny July afternoon, riding their bikes.

In the days following their disappearance, police put up traffic checkpoints, went door to door and combed nearby woods, even draining a lake in the search.

Police are still calling the girls’ disappearance abduction and Collins thinks the girls are alive.

"Deep down in my heart, I think that they're still alive," she said.

In an open letter to the assumed kidnapper, Heather Collins asks that the girls be returned alive, at any city park.

It's that desperate plea that Collins hopes will be heard by whoever’s responsible for their disappearance.

"We just want the girls back. We don't know who they are. We just want the girls back home with us."

If you have any information, contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Evansdale Police Department at (319) 232-6692.